Foreword

The following is Hackers In Space, as
it appeared on page 21 of 2600 issue 29:3. This article is one of my personal
favorites, since it deals with something that I have a great personal interest in:
amateur space communication and technology.

As the cost of launches come down, and electronics get smaller and smaller, it's
finally possible for groups other than world superpowers to get a spacecraft into
orbit. This article presents a theoretical roadmap of sorts, which would take a
dedicated and suitably funded group through the steps required to research and
develop a small communications satellite.

The original ASCII text file for this document can be found in the "Text" section
of the Downloads page.

Introduction

While those of us in the United States have managed to fight off large scale
Internet censorship in the form of PIPA and SOPA (at least, for the time
being), the battle to maintain an individual's unfettered access to the
Internet is still raging all over the globe. Is it any wonder? With social
networks becoming an increasingly indispensable tool for protesters and
freedom fighters, the governments of many foreign countries are looking to
actively censor, or even deactivate, the Internet at their discretion.

Now imagine plugging a device about the size of a standard USB WiFi adapter
into your computer, setting up an antenna, and being able to receive news and
information from orbiting satellites even when you can't get access to the
Internet. But instead of these satellites being owned and operated by a
government or corporation, imagine they were completely under the control of
ordinary citizens. Such a network would be indispensable for combating corrupt
governments, organizing rescue operations in areas stricken by natural
disasters, and providing information to third world countries that don't have
a telecommunications infrastructure. But, can it be done?

At Chaos Communication Camp 2011, a talk was given detailing a "modest"
proposal for putting a
hacker on the moon by 2034.
While I can't say I am too optimistic about that particular goal (there is some
debate if even NASA will be able to get anyone off this rock before then); the
first phase of their plan, to build a free and globally accessible satellite
communications network, is something completely different. With the rapid
commercialization of space transport and operations, it's now possible for
a group of individuals, using open source software and hardware, to construct,
launch, and operate their own communications satellite; though certainly not easy.

First Steps

When dealing with hardware intended for space flight, there is no such thing as
being over-prepared. Anyone attempting to build a device and accompanying
software destined for low Earth orbit (LEO) would be wise to start a bit closer
to the surface of the Earth, by way of a high altitude balloon. Using readily
available weather balloons, it's possible to send a small payload up to
100,000 feet (30 km). At this altitude, the sky turns black and the
temperatures can drop down to nearly -100 F (-73 C), an excellent dress
rehearsal for a space mission.

Operating a craft in near-space, generally considered to be anywhere between
65,000 feet (20 km) and 350,000 feet (107 km), demands many of the same design
paradigms of a true spacecraft: reliability, redundancy, energy efficiency,
thermal protection, mass and dimensional constraints, etc. Operating such a
craft would also require the ability to track and effectively communicate with
a high altitude object, one of the most important aspects of creating a
practical communications network. In fact, the
Hackerspace Global Grid is a project dedicated
to just that subject, the tracking and identification of satellites via open
source software and hardware. You can't talk to something you can't find, so
this subject is getting a lot of research and development now in preparation
of future projects.

While you'll never construct a global communication network with balloons
alone, they may have a future in temporary or emergency networks. The LVL1
hackerspace in Louisville, Kentucky is working on the
White Star Balloon project,
a self-ballasting weather balloon capable of maintaining its
altitude and staying airborne for days at a time. While LVL1's goal with White
Star is to send the balloon across the Atlantic Ocean via the jet stream, it's
not unreasonable to imagine a similarly designed balloon equipped with some
type of propulsion system being able to maintain its position (roughly) over
an area for extended periods of time. Being able to place a balloon over a
target area for use in communications or even surveillance has some very
obvious uses. Incidentally, the US military is currently experimenting with
this very concept using manned and unmanned balloons.

Getting Into Space

Building a high altitude balloon is certainly a challenge, but not outside the
grasp of even a clever high school student. It's a good demonstration, but it's
a far cry from building and launching a proper satellite. So what now? How do
you actually get something into space if you aren't a world superpower?

Not that long ago, you didn't. It just wasn't happening. But as commercial
spaceflight started to emerge as a viable enterprise, a new class of satellite
quickly started to gain popularity: the
CubeSat. CubeSats are miniature
satellites, sometimes referred to as picosats or nanosats, which adhere to
specifications written by the California Polytechnic State University and
Stanford University. CubeSats are 10x10x10 cm cubes with a mass of 1 kg,
scalable along one axis up to 3 cubes. This allows for a satellite (known in
this configuration as a 3U CubeSat) with a maximum size of 10x10x30 cm and a
maximum mass of 3 kg. The mass and dimensional constraints are tight, but with
ever smaller components and manufacturing techniques, it should be within the
capabilities of a well equipped hackerspace.

Of course the next question is: how much does it really cost to build and
launch a CubeSat? There are a lot of variables involved here, from the size of
the satellite to the orbit it's placed in. A realistic estimate for getting a
1U CubeSat (a single 10x10x10 cm cube) into orbit would likely be around
$80,000 to $100,000 USD, though depending on who you talk to the number can be
as low as $40,000. While $100,000 is surely a lot of money for us in the "99%",
it's not an unreachable goal. Consider that the TikTok project managed to
raise $942,578 on Kickstarter...and its a watchband for the iPod Nano. If the
hacker community could raise that much money, a fleet of communication
satellites would be well within the budget.

For the hacker on an even tighter budget, Interorbital Systems plans on
beginning launches for their
"TubeSats" this year.
The TubeSat is advertised as "the low-cost alternative to the CubeSat", costing
only $8,000 for the construction kit, including the launch. The steep discount
does come with a penalty however, as the TubeSat offers only three-quarters the
total mass of the 1U CubeSat, and is placed in an orbit which will decay after a
month or so. Still, there's something to be said for being able to build and
launch your own personal satellite for the cost of a decent used car.

Ears To The Sky

A lot of people seem to be under the impression that communication with
satellites requires a 10 foot wide satellite dish and a room full of radios. In
reality, you can receive the downlink of low altitude satellites
with nothing more than a handheld scanner and a simple "rubber duck" antenna.
Naturally this isn't an ideal solution, and a more permanent installation with
motorized high gain antennas would get much better results, but it does give
you an idea of what's possible in a pinch.

Another common misconception is that satellite communication requires a
license. While transmitting to an orbiting satellite would require an amateur
radio license from your government of choice, simply receiving broadcasts on
the common satellite bands can be done by anyone with the appropriate
equipment. Naturally, this means that communication with our theoretical hacker
satellite network would be one-way for unlicensed individuals, but that really
isn't a problem. The immediate goal of such a project would be to spread news
and information to people who would otherwise be cut off from the world, so in
that case it would be enough to receive a downlink of the latest pertinent
information. Of course, anyone with the appropriate license and adequate
equipment could use the satellite network in a bi-directional fashion as well,
so both use cases could be served simultaneously.

With recent advancements in Software Defined Radio (SDR), you don't even need
a traditional radio to receive broadcasts anymore. Products like the
FUNcube dongle are low cost
SDR devices specifically designed for amateur satellite communication.
Coming in at under $300 USD and controlled by freely available open
source software, SDR devices like this bring satellite communication
within reach of even the most modestly funded hackerspaces or groups
of individuals. As the market for satellite-oriented SDRs grows, we will
see those prices come down even farther; to the point that within a few years
a radio capable of receiving satellite transmissions might not cost much more
than WiFi hardware.

Reasonable Expectations

With talk of satellite ground stations and launching home-built spacecraft,
it's easy to get carried away. A look at any of the mainstream media coverage
of projects like the Hackerspace Global Grid will give you a good idea of how
easily the imagination wanders (or runs) when taking about anything to do with
space.

The major thing to understand is that nobody is suggesting a "parallel
Internet". That was an idea the media glommed onto almost immediately, but it's
wildly impractical. Establishing a meaningful TCP/IP connection to an amateur
satellite would be a challenge for even a well-equipped ham radio operator, so
the idea that this could be a service offered to the masses is out of the
question right now.

Most likely, the early versions of a hacker satellite network would only be
able to broadcast simple text messages. Think of an orbiting serial terminal,
and you'll have a pretty good idea of what's possible. Licensed radio operators
with the appropriate equipment could upload the message to be broadcast, and
the satellites would then repeat it to anyone who cares to listen until they
receive new instructions.

Perhaps not as exciting and glamorous as some people might like, but it's a
start. Such a system could be invaluable for individuals whose government
censors (or cuts off) their Internet access or in emergency situations.

Conclusion

It'll be quite some time before we can surf the web on our own hacker-built
satellite ISP. But with the proper research, funding, and skill, it's not
unreasonable to think we could see low cost receivers pulling down data from
civilian built satellites within the next two years; assuming there are enough
people motivated to make it happen.

As John F. Kennedy said of the Apollo program in 1962, we do these things "not
because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve
to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills".